The Testing Zone

Taking The Test

It's 3:00am. I've been studying for about 5 hours now and I need to go to bed now. Tomorrow is the Test. I put my textbook down and look at my bed. It's blue comforter is looking so nice and cozy right now. I walk over to it, feeling the cold floors beneath my bare feet. I crawl under it and tell myself I have nothing to worry about. I look over at my alarm clock, 4 hours of sleep. I lay on my side and try falling asleep. It's now 3:09. 3 times 3 equals nine. I try falling asleep again, look back and it's 3:49. 3 plus 46 gives fourty nine. I can't sleep! Tomorrow I will take a test that determines how I will spend the rest of my life. I'm so bored that I turn on the small TV in my room. I watch the news. It's the news anchor, Porphyris. He's discussing how he thinks tomorw's tests will go. He explains the history of everything.
How long ago the United States realized that it wasn't on top anymore, so they decided that each year in May there will be a Test that consists of five subjects: math, reading, history, survival, and a physical test. Then, to scare people from being at the bottom, the 5 worse scorers from each subject, called Takers, will be thrown in an arena called the Testing Zone and forced to kill each other until one remains left, the Aced-Taker. So, five from each subject, 25 people in total. However, sometimes they will have "Special Years" in which something is different. For example, once they took the 10 lowest scoring from each subject. Porphyris shows a clip from that year. 49 people dead.
To win the Testing Zone means to bring honor to your state, but not havnig to send anyone is the true honor. So far, only two states have not had to send anyone, Utah, and the state I live in, New York. Alabama has sent at least one Taker pretty much every year, once they event sent three Takers. Alabama has never won.
Porphyris shows a clip from last year. The girl who was was from Wyoming. She failed her reading subject and won by brutally murdering people with her mace. Porphyris also talks about his favorite year, a Special Year in which they took the 25 kids only from those who failed their survival and physical subjects. This was the only year where a kid who failed their physical test won. Those kids tend to not last long.
  I look at the clock. 5:00 am. I only have two more hours to sleep, but I'm not worried. New York has never sent anyone. Why would this year be any different?
  I wake up and study a bit before booking it to the bus. I'm super nervous. If I fail this test and become the first person from New York to get sent into the Testing Zone, I'd be a disgrace, unless I win, but that's not likely. Today we will be doing four out of the five subjects, physical is excluded. Tomorrow we'll do that. Each county tests in a big dome shaped room. I walk in a smell the freshly waxed wood and I can see all the kids walking to their desks. I walk to a random desk and sit down. I look at the thick paper book laid out before me. A wave of relief rushes over me. Every year they tell you whether or not it will be a normal year or a Special Year on the cover of your booklet. Luckily, this year is a normal year. We are given 5 hours to complete the test. I remember back when I was eight years old. That was when you start taking the practice tests until you reach the age of fourteen, then you take the real test, then you're eligible to get sent in to die. The Test just gets harder and harder until you reach the age of 20, you're last year to be eligible. I'm 17 now. My test is going to be pretty hard.
  I open it when the instructor allows us to. The test is very confusing, to keep you on your toes, it's not split up into different subjects like the ACT or the SAT. Rather, you can be writing a mini essay about how Ivan the Terrible was so terrible on number 7, and then be answering a multiple choice question on a passage on question 8. The subjects just bounce around like that.
  Every hour we're allowed to take a break, but the break only lasts for two minutes. I'm sure to stretch and drink water during my break so I don't fall asleep during the test.  I finish the test right when the instructor yells that we put our pencils down. I've finished, which is more than most people can say. The majority of Takers are sent to die are there because they couldn't finish their Test.
  The physical test isn't that hard. Just running, stretching, push ups, sit ups, pull ups, etc. I am definitely not going to wind up on the bottom five for this test. I see at least five other guys who did worse than me. I go home and collapse on my bad. I don't want to die this year. I just want to get out of here and become a zoo keeper and live my life in peace. The bottom five people will be announced next week during the nightly news. My friends and I always watch. We make fun of the people chosen because you have to really dumb to be on the bottom of the nation. But there's always that one friend who says, "Well, someone has to be." This makes us stop laughing until we see some idiot being dragged from their home.